Gwendoline Dirk at her official campaign launch in Medicine Hat on Oct. 12, 2022. (Photo Courtesy Chris Brown)

By Chris Brown

‘I live here, I work here’: Gwendoline Dirk ready to campaign against premier

Oct 12, 2022 | 5:06 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Officially launching her campaign in the Brooks-Medicine Hat riding, the NDP’s Gwendoline Dirk drew a clear distinction between herself and the United Conservative candidate.

“I live here, I work here, I know what the issues are,” Dirk said, standing just a couple hundred yards from where Premier Danielle Smith announced her Brooks-Medicine Hat candidacy. “I talk to people every day. I’ve been on the doorsteps since June, mid-June, when I was nominated, and I feel I can represent {constituents} concerns in an authentic way. I’m not a parachute candidate stopping in to get a seat in the legislature.”

Dirk said politics was not in her plans until recently when she became concerned about the direction the province is taking under the UCP.

She says that health care is the topic that comes up most often when she is door-knocking.

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“Rural issues and issues in Medicine Hat in general the number one issue is not being able to find a family doctor,” she said. “If you have a doctor, a family doctor right now in Medicine Hat you better hope that you can hang on to that doctor. if you do not have a doctor, you can’t find one. No new doctors are taking on patients. So that would be the number one issue that I’m hearing.”

An ongoing affordability crisis for families is the second-most pressing issue she hears about. She says the UCP has made it worse by increasing things like tuition debt on student loans and car insurance premiums and by making cuts to AISH and seniors’ benefits.

Dirk says the third issue she hears about most is the instability in the government.

“People want a government in place that is actually ready to step up and govern rather than create more conflict and chaos,” she said.

Lethbridge-West NDP MLA Shannon Phillips was in Medicine Hat to help kick off Dirk’s campaign. She said that electing the premier in the riding wouldn’t necessarily equate to the government making more investment in the area, which says was virtually ignored by the government despite Medicine Hat electing two UCP MLAs in 2019.

Alberta Party Leader and former Brooks Mayor Barry Morishita is also running in Brooks-Medicine Hat.

The byelection has been set for Nov. 8.